The present study addresses an issue of the English language that has been discussed at length for the past several decades: Which pronoun should one use when referring to a singular, genderless antecedent (e.g., student)? Though much has been written on the subject of the use of the generic masculine, singular they, and he or she constructions in published works, and other studies have looked at how English speakers process and interpret the aforementioned pronouns in writing, few studies have researched the use of these pronouns in free response to questions including a singular, genderless referent. The present study contributes to the last of these three methodologies by exploring which pronouns native English speakers use when writing about a genderless person (i.e., "the ideal student"). The results of this study indicate that a large majority of participants (79%) include a gender-inclusive approach (he or she type constructions or singular they) when referring to a singular, genderless antecedent; 68% use singular they. However, participants note that he or she type variations do not include some who may not identify within the gender binary.

中文翻译：

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Singularthey：通用代词使用的实证研究

本研究解决了过去几十年来一直在详细讨论的英语语言问题：当提到一个单一的、无性别的先行词（例如，学生）时，应该使用哪个代词？尽管已经有很多关于在已发表作品中使用通用阳性、单数他们和他或她结构的主题，并且其他研究已经研究了英语使用者如何在写作中处理和解释上述代词，但很少有研究研究在自由回答问题时使用这些代词，包括单数、无性别的指称。本研究通过探索以英语为母语的人在写关于无性别的人（即“理想的学生”）时使用哪些代词，为这三种方法中的最后一种做出了贡献。这项研究的结果表明，大多数参与者 (79%) 在提到单一的、无性别的前因时包括性别包容的方法（他或她输入结构或单数）；68% 使用单数他们。然而，参与者注意到他或她的类型变化不包括一些在性别二元中可能无法识别的人。